A Wilson College alumna has asked that the school's board of trustees delay making the women's college coeducational.

"How can we get a motion to delay the coed implementation on the agenda?" Samantha Ainuddin, Class of 1994, has asked trustee chairman John Gibb.

Ainuddin, a Philadelphia area television director, has been vocal in her support of allowing only women to live on campus.

The college is to admit male residential students in fall 2014. The college this fall will allow men of college age to attend as commuters. Men, 22 years and older, currently are allowed to enroll as commuter students. They make up about 11 percent of the student body.

Wilson College was founded in 1869 as one of the nation's first colleges for women. Admitting men is seen as a way of increasing enrollment and revenue. The independent college needs a library, student center and gymnasium besides $10 million of maintenance. Annual $1 million payments on its science building start in 2019.

Ainuddin was encouraged that alumnae raised $81,000 in the 25 days prior to the board's decision of Jan. 13. At that pace alumnae could raise $1 million in a year, she said.

"The potential is high for this momentum to increase over time as more of us 'younger' alums re-connect with the college, and the newer staff gets to know us," Ainuddin said in her letter. "I would maintain that there still is time to have a more inclusive process.

Advertisement

"

There seems little chance of reconsideration when the trustees hold their regular winter meeting this weekend, Thursday through Saturday.

"The decision of the board is set," said Brian Speer, Wilson's vice president of marketing and communications. "Wilson is a coeducational institution, and we are actively working on implementing the initiatives."

Ainuddin said alumnae have questioned whether the trustees had full benefit of the work of the Commission on Shaping the Future of Wilson College and alumnae task forces. She referred to a Feb. 7 letter by Gretchen Van Ness, a commission member and former college trustee, to the Journal on Higher Education.

Van Ness, Class of 1980 and a Boston attorney, said that other colleges have taken longer than a year to consider whether to go co-ed. Wilson took scarcely more than six months.

Eight days before the trustee's decision the Wilson College Alumnae Association created four task forces to look at admission, retention, fundraising and marketing while delaying the admission of men.

Van Ness wrote: "The decision to admit male students was neither necessary nor inevitable, and the process by which that decision was reached was neither data-driven nor 'open.' Rather than a thoughtful, considered and inclusive collaboration of stakeholders, the commission's process resembled a mad dash to the finish line."

The trustees on Jan. 13 also expanded academic offerings and lowered tuition in 2014.

The complete letter by Gretchen Van Ness is available at http://chronicle.com/blogs/letters/process-that-broad-coeducation-to-wilson-was-rushed-incomplete/.

--------

Jim Hook can be reached at 717-262-4759 and jhook@publicopinionnews.com.